The present invention relates to a tanning apparatus with means which assist facial tanning and low pressure tubes irradiating in the UV-A spectral range, said tubes being arranged in a plate which is at least transparent for UV-A rays in a lower part shaped in the form of a bed and/or in a downwardly radiating upper part of the browning apparatus over the entire longitudinal extension thereof, a reflector being provided on the side of the low pressure tubes remote from the tanning body.
Nowadays such tanning apparatuses preferably use so-called UV-A rays, i.e. the longest wave rays in the ultraviolet range following on to the visible spectrum. In the skin, these rays convert colourless pigment precursors into brown melanin.
As the skin of the face is generally much more frequently exposed to solar radiation than the remainder of the skin of the body, in many persons the face tans much more slowly than the rest of the body, even in the case of uniform radiation action. However, as many users of tanning apparatuses attach particular importance to the tanning of the face, high power burners are provided in the facial region in conventional tanning apparatuses. The radiation source is then constituted by a metal-halogen UV-A burner. However, such a burner produces UV-B rays, as well as the desired UV-A rays and although the former activates the regeneration of colourless pigment granules, they cause sunburn in the case of excessive intensity. Thus, considerable amounts of UV-B radiation must be filtered out when using such conventional metal--halogen burners in the facial area and for this purpose expensive filter plates must be used.
A further disadvantage of conventional metal--halogen burners is that, in the case of high power consumption, they are also subject to heating and heat the surrounding components of the tanning apparatus through the emission of IR-radiation, so that both the burner and the surrounding components must be very effectively cooled. IR-radiation also leads to a considerable heating effect on the face of the tanning person, and is considered unpleasant by the latter. The conventional metal--halogen burners can also only produce with difficulty a large, uniform radiation field.